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jueves, 20 de julio de 2017

Oksana Karavanska

Oksana Karavanska: ‘If a Woman Has a High-Powered Position, She Should Not Dress Like a Man’

When the future world-renown Ukrainian designer Oksana Karavanska was in kindergarten, already her peers turned to her for pictures of princesses. And when she was in 10th grade she found herself in the studio of a teacher from Lviv Academy of Arts. There she suddenly realized that the art students’ work was very similar to her doodles. Soon afterward Oksana enrolled in the fashion design program at the artacademy. During her first year she met the fashion guru Slava Zaytsev. Her first major show after graduation took place in Tallinn, where she shook hands with the celebrity Paco Rabanne. Ultimately, Karavanska became a finalist at Alta-Moda, the chair of the jury which was Pierre Cardin. Her work has been shown in the USA, Canada, Italy, France… The list of the achievements of one of the most prominent Ukrainian designers can go on and on. But it is much better to talk to Oksana Karanavksa tete-a-tete and try to get a glimpse into her world.

- Oksana, you have persistently been called an “ethno-designer” and as far as I know, you have been fighting against this label…

- Yes, I’ve been fighting it all my creative life. I have three versions of the appearance of the label “ethno-designer.” First, because I speak only Ukrainian. The second, nearly 100 percent of my showings are accompanied by music by Ukrainian musicians and composers. And the third,all of my collections are inspired by Ukraine – its past or present. And much less the prefix “ethno”applies to the clothing from OksanaKaravanska, especially the elements of embroidery, etc. After all, if it comes to that, cross-stitch originated not in Ukraine but in France. Somehow, Dolce and Gabbana, who have cross-stitch in almost all of their collections are never called ethno-designers (smiles). Once in protest against the label “ethno-designer” I created a collection dedicated to Ukrainian avant-garde artists, including KazymyrMalevych. It was totally avant-garde, but it was re-dubbed “ethnic”…